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Sunday 27 January 2019

The 1825 will of Richard Gidley of Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire

I recently came across an index entry for this will, which is in Bristol Archives, and applied for a copy. Nothing of Bristol Archives material has been digitised on any family history websites, as far as I know, and Bristol is not a traditional home for Gidley families at that date, so I was intrigued.
And it is interesting, as it has added to my knowledge of the Gidley family from Whitestone in Devon. I transcribe it below. I have changed only a few initial capital letters to lower case and omitted only some illegible, apparently administrative-type phrases.
This is the last will and testament of me, Richard Gidley of the parish of Westbury-on-Trym in the county of Gloucester. I give and bequeath unto [a line inserted here which is difficult to read but seems to be administrative] Miss Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton in the county of Gloucester, spinster, the sum of seventy pounds [another small illegible insertion] and I give and bequeath unto my father Nathaniel Gidley senior and my mother Mary Gidley both of the parish of Saint Thomas Exeter in the county of Devon the sum of fifty five pounds to be equally shared between them share and share alike. And I give and bequeath unto my brother Nathaniel Gidley junior of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter all my cloathes [sic]. And I give and bequeath unto my younger brother George Gidley of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter my watch. And I hereby nominate constitute and appoint the said Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton aforesaid executrix of this my will hereby revoking all former will and wills by me heretofore made and declare this [illegible] to be my last will and testament In witness whereof I have to this my last will and testament [illegible] my hand and seal this twenty ninth day of March one thousand eight hundred and twenty five.
Signed sealed published and declared by the within testatrix as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.
Henry Greenly 10 Portland Place, Clifton
James Corner No.[?4] Lower [?Berkeley] Place, Clifton

Also attached is a codicil, drawn up only a day later, on 30th March 1825, increasing Sarah Wigley's bequest to £100 "now being in the hands of Messrs. Daniel, Kiles, Harford, Reynolds, Prothero, Bright and Sanders as trustees to the Bristol Savings Bank....and that the said Sarah Wigley shall be at liberty to draw out the said sum of one hundred pounds and all interest which shall be due and owing...if it shall seem expedient to her to do so. To hold same unto the said Sarah Wigley for and during the term of her natural life to and for her own proper use and benefit."

Did Richard discover he had more money in his account than he thought?
And who was Sarah Wigley? Possibly his fiancee? He obviously had a lot of confidence in her and she was about to become a comparatively wealthy woman for those days. I can see no Sarah Wigley in the Gloucestershire Burial or Marriage Indexes between 1825 and 1841, and the only Sarah Wigley I can find in Gloucestershire in the 1841 census is the one living with William Jones and his family, a gardener, in St Catherine's Street, Gloucester. She was born about 1781 and her occupation is "private", which fits a private income. This Sarah Wigley seems to have died in 1847, and was buried on August 20th that year in St Mary de Lode, Gloucester, aged 74 (so born about 1773), of St. Catherine's. A fiancee seems unlikely when we consider Richard Gidley's age.
It is clear from the family details in the will that Richard Gidley was born in Whitestone, Devon, in 1792, the oldest child of Nathaniel Gidley (born 1764 in Cheriton Bishop, Devon) and his wife Mary Westcott. Between 1811 when their youngest child was born and 1825 when Richard's will was drawn up, they had moved to Exeter, about 4 miles east of Whitestone.
Richard's father did not live very long to enjoy his legacy, as he died only seven years later in Exeter. Richard's mother died in 1844. The older brother Nathaniel also outlived Richard for only a few years. He joined the 59th Regiment of the army and died in Bangalore in 1834, aged only 31. Were Richard's "cloathes" any use to him?
The younger brother George is a bit of a mystery. He was only 14 when Richard died and he inherited his brother's watch. In 1838 he married Mary Blackmore Bennett in Exeter and they had 2 children - Maria Patience born in 1838 and George in about 1844. There is no sign of George the elder after 1841. I can't find him in the censuses nor in the England & Wales death indexes. His wife and children were visiting or staying in other households in 1851, although Mary described herself as married. By 1861 she states she is a widow. Their daughter Maria Patience moved to London, where she married Charles Francis in 1856.
George's son George the younger, whose birth reference or christening in about 1844 I haven't found, married Jessie Chamberlain in Exeter in 1872. A coach painter, he described his father on the marriage certificate as George Gidley, deceased. They have descendants who have continued to live in Devon.
So was Sarah Wigley, who may have been about 20 years older than Richard Gidley, his nurse in his final illness? His housekeeper? And there's no clue as to what Richard did for a living. He was obviously earning a good income and had moved an unusual distance from his birthplace. One rather puzzling thing is that there is no mention of his sisters in his will. Only one, Grace Setter, was married in 1825. The others, Mary (untraceable), Elizabeth (Betty, later married James Payne), Sarah (Sally, later married William Darkes) and Maria were still unmarried. Perhaps they were intended to share their parents' £55 legacy.